Mick Jagger and Keith Richards pick their favourite songs by The Beatles
When The Beatles emerged in the early 1960s, it wouldn’t take long for them to become cultural icons, spawning the intense phenomenon of Beatlemania, which saw them treated like gods, worshipped by fans across the world with the same fervour as religious fanatics. Naturally, it was difficult for any band to usurp the Fab Four’s place in pop culture, although The Rolling Stones did a pretty good job of trying.
The Beatles helped The Stones to develop at the beginning of their career, even recording a Lennon-McCartney penned number, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, as their second single. However, soon enough, the Stones were building up a strong reputation of their own, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards joining forces to become an indomitable writing duo.
The Rolling Stones soon found fame across the pond, with their single ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ hitting number one in various countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, upon its release in 1965. Still, The Beatles maintained their reign for the rest of the decade, cementing themselves as the most influential band of all time.
Naturally, there was a slight rivalry between the two bands, with the Rolling Stones constantly being overshadowed by their Liverpudlian contemporaries. During The Beatles’ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech, Jagger explained: “We had a sort of a lot of rivalry in those early years, and a little bit of friction, but we always ended up friends.”
Despite everything, The Stones have always greatly admired The Beatles – after all, they might not have blossomed into such a successful band if not for the influence of the Fab Four. Jagger and Richards were particularly fond of the band’s music; in fact, the latter used to be so obsessed with The Beatles that he drove Jagger “batty”.
Jagger explained in the documentary My Life as a Rolling Stone: “We were working the clubs in London, and the Beatles just came out and had a hit, ‘Love Me Do’. And we said, ‘Oh, man, what a great record!”
He added: “The Beatles suddenly explode … but we’re a blues band. The Beatles changed this whole thing. Keith, he’d play the Beatles all the time. It would drive me absolutely batty! And why he was playing The Beatles wasn’t because he didn’t want to listen to anything else. Keith wanted to write these pop songs because we were undeniably the blues band… we knew we had to be a pop band.”
That’s not the only time Jagger has mentioned the importance of hearing ‘Love Me Do’, which made him realise that the Stones needed to level up. During the same induction speech, he explained: “We were doing Chuck Berry songs and blues and things, and we thought that we were totally unique animals. And then we heard there was a group from Liverpool, and they had long hair, scruffy clothes.”
He added: “But they had a record contract. And they had a record on the charts, with a bluesy harmonica on it, called ‘Love Me Do.’ When I heard the combination of all these things, I was almost sick.”
While The Beatles’ first single remains Jagger’s favourite, Richards has always expressed his love for their second release, ‘Please Please Me’, which appeared on their debut album of the same name. He once shared: “I’ve always told McCartney, ‘Please Please Me.’ I just love the chimes, and I was there at the time and it was beautiful. Mind you, there’s plenty of others, but if I’ve got to pick one, ‘Please Please Me’…oh, yeah!”
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